“In the Public Interest?”

The ‘Public Interest’ is a concept with which society appears enamoured.

What is the Public Interest? Surely not everything of interest to the public.

Recent controversy involving the royal family must surely have highlighted the distinction. But how about the ‘Twelve Just Men’ - should justice be dispensed because we know rather than can prove?

In the increasingly complex field of regulation the ‘Public Interest’ is becoming even more of a minefield. Information sharing, privilege, confidentiality and data protection legislation do not necessarily fit comfortably with the notion of “protecting the public at any cost”.